On Thursday evening, amid swirling speculation about an incident at Brown University, the network's Kaitlan Collins took to social media, pointing out the conflicting information and pointing viewers to her channel's 9pm newscast.
Although CNN is certainly not a impeccable news source, her statement seemed accurate to many. It remains one of the outlets where one can locate grounded and largely dependable reporting – particularly during fast-moving events such as the one taking place close to a New Hampshire storage facility.
An Uncertain State Amid a Corporate Battle
Yet CNN, now middle-aged, finds itself in a vulnerable situation as two massive media conglomerates battle over ownership of its parent company, Warner Bros Discovery.
No matter the result, the future of CNN has turned into a major game of business acquisition, rather than as a question of what serves the information-seeking public.
“This represents another instance of the profound systemic issues with roots in many years of governmental choices,” stated Victor Pickard, author of “Democracy Without Journalism?” and a media policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
The debate about who will own Warner Bros Discovery – will it be Netflix or Paramount Skydance? – fails to grasp a more important point.
“It is often framed as a corporate drama with key players as the central actors, but there is scant discussion of the common good,” Pickard said.
The Additional Layer: Political Influence
This situation is complicated by Donald Trump’s longstanding stance about a network he has frequently denounced as perhaps his chief “fake news” foe.
Think back to the shouts of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies, his team's disciplinary revocation of reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials, or his tense exchanges with Collins in press briefings.
Trump now claims that CNN needs new ownership. You can read that as ownership that will shield him from criticism and scrutiny. That is one reason why he appears to support Paramount Skydance, which has made a hostile bid.
He has grounds to favor that bidder more. For one thing, it is run by David Ellison, son of the Trump-friendly Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people.
The company, parent of CBS News, also recently placed the conservative Bari Weiss, famous for her “anti-woke” beliefs, as the top editor of that historic news network.
An Outcome of Further Turmoil
Significantly, if Netflix prevails, CNN and other cable outlets would first be spun off into a standalone company. That would be a welcome development to many at the network, but it’s far from a guarantee of stability. That setup could position CNN for yet another acquisition. There is no finish line.
If you ask Timothy Wu, a great deal of this is illegal, anyway. The prominent critic of big tech’s dominance stated that competition laws should disallow both deals.
“Each proposed deal would be harmful to the country, and both should be contested by regulators,” Wu argued.
The Fundamental Problem and a Path Forward
Whatever happens regarding CNN, the larger issue persists.
“The present media landscape is a profoundly anti-democratic system, but we shouldn’t give in to learned helplessness,” Pickard emphasized. Policy decisions – dating back to the 1930s and 1940s – helped to build this profit-obsessed monster, and new policy decisions can tackle it.
Will that happen in an era where the top communications regulator refuses to acknowledge that the agency is independent? Reform is a distant prospect now, but that should not imply it will not happen in the future.
Policies that support independent news organizations, reinforce local journalism, subsidize public media, and prevent the consolidation of media power in very few hands are not only possible – they are essential for a healthy democracy.
In the world of media ownership, larger is not superior. And news organizations like CNN must not be tools in the most recent merger game.
